Monday morning I got pain in my left hip. I got up late morning, went to the bathroom and then back to bed. When I woke up an hour or two later I had pain I my left hip. The pain was where the hip bone is. I thought it was due to arthritis. I have arthritis on my right hip and have treated it the past 8 years or so and made it mostly go away.
I tried to deal with the pain. But the next day it was worse. I called my doctor's office for an appointment. The soonest he could see me was March 18. Okay then.
I tried riding some more bicycle miles in hopes it would alleviate the pain like bicycle riding did for my right hip pain in the past. But riding didn't help the situation. Earlier in the week I had been taking some ibuprofen pills for the pain. Maybe they dulled the pain slightly. Then on Thursday Donna told me that one should not take ibuprofen pills when one is also taking meloxicam pills. The meloxicam pills are to treat the arthritis pain in my right hip. So I switched to Advil type of pain meds on Thursday.
The pain in my left hip is different than the pain in my right hip. My right hip pain was when I carried stuff like an irrigation pipe, or when I stood on hard floors. Sitting usually was not too painful. The left hip pain was when I sat. When I stood the pain was not as bad. When I walked the pain faded away. In both cases - right or left - laying down was not painful. As the week went on the pain would sometimes move from the hip down to the back of my upper left leg.
On Friday I drove up town to get groceries. Sitting in the pickup was very painful. My doctor's clinic was on the way to the grocery store. I stopped at the clinic in hopes of getting an earlier doctor visit. My doctor was out of the office that day. Another doctor could see me in the afternoon. But the problem was that the x-ray technician had broken her foot in three places while on vacation and now was not working for a while. So if I saw the doctor I would have to go a walk-in clinic to get an x-ray of my hip.
So I went to a walk-in clinic to see a doctor and get an x-ray. I spent from 12:45 pm to 3:30 pm at the clinic. Lots of people there were getting x-rays. And I think the x-ray technician was new and learning as he had a woman who would help him and tell him what to do. That may be why I had to wait so long for an x-ray to happen.
The x-ray confirmed what the doctor (nurse practitioner) thought could be the problem before the x-rays were taken. The x-rays were of my left hip and also my lower spine. There is arthritis in my left hip. There is space in my lower spine. And the doctor thinks I am suffering from piriformis syndrome.
The doctor prescribed a muscle relaxing medication and also a steroid medication. And four to six weeks of physical therapy. After two days the new meds are helping a little bit. I can now sit occasionally without too much pain. So I can now write a blog post about my situation. But I am going to have end this quickly as the pain level is now starting to rise from this sitting.
Here is a good description of the piriformis syndrome.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/23495-piriformis-syndrome
In advance of my physical therapy sessions I looked at YouTube for videos on how to exercise to alleviate the pain. Here are a few videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgbpYL_NDZ0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK-cVqxSiIE
And here is a video about sciatic pain. I think my left piriformis muscle is inflamed and swollen and pressing on my sciatic nerve. In the video he also mentions copper to treat pain. In one's body, and also wearing some copper on one's body. I wonder if copper has a health benefit or if this is mumble-jumble.
